The present application relates to a device for sliding door leaves with co-planar closure, particularly for furniture and the like.
Nowadays as an alternative to normal hinged doors, sliding door solutions are known that can be applied both to wardrobes and furniture in general and to door and window frames or to any other application of closing elements that require a reduced space in their open position.
Generally these types of doors are constituted by two or more door leaves, each one of which has brackets with rolling means guided by a rail, which is constituted by an upper guide and by a lower guide, respectively applied to the floor and to the ceiling of the space to be closed, the rail of one door leaf being adjacent and parallel to the rail of the other door leaf.
The sliding of the door leaves in this type of door thus occurs on parallel and adjacent planes which achieve the closure of the space by the alignment or partial overlapping of the edges of one door leaf with the edges of the other door leaf and with the mutually opposite edges of both door leaves against the edges or the jambs of the space to be closed.
The unaesthetic quality of sliding doors which in the closed condition are seen as arranged on two different planes, although parallel and close together, in particular in furniture where aesthetics assume considerable importance, has led the technique of the field to seek solutions that provide the co-planarity of the two door leaves, when they are closed, whereas also ensuring their overlapping when they are open.
According to this consolidated technique, co-planarity of the door leaves is obtained during closing, although with different devices of greater or lesser complexity, involving, for each door leaf, a step of entrainment, along the respective parallel rails, and a step of pushing for the translational motion thereof into the adjacent bottom rail, the other end of which already supports and guides the other door leaf with which to align the door leaf in movement.
Italian patent for invention no. 1.208.152, for achieving co-planarity, is known, which uses an entrainment device in which for each door leaf a pair of sliding guides is provided, by means of adapted brackets and respective sliding elements, each one of such pairs of guides comprising a rectilinear front guide and a second rear guide with curved end portion, while the first guide is provided with a part that branches out at right angles and is directed toward the the second guide, so as to enable the translational motion of corresponding sliding elements of the corresponding door leaf, by simple translational motion of the door leaf to be moved.
However, even the relative constructional simplicity of the sliding doors solution proposed by the above-mentioned patent has exhibited a complexity in the construction and assembly thereof, as well as a certain encumbrance of the supporting structure and translational motion of the door leaves.
In particular it has been found that the encumbrance of the bracket systems and of the lower trackways leads to failure to use part of the piece of furniture on which these sliding doors are applied.
A severe drawback which is ascribable to such known art consists in that in order to achieve the closing of the door leaf, the user must apply a certain amount of force which, in the final step of closing, causes the rapid movement of the door leaf on the piece of furniture with consequent heavy impact between the components. In addition to a bothersome noise, this causes damage to the components over time.